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Shakespeare By The Bay

Shakespearian festivities will serenade Sandgate this month, with the annual Brisbane Shakespeare Festival being held throughout Sandgate on 24 and 25 September.

Visitors will feel they’ve travelled back 400 years as they are entertained by Shakespeare’s passionate stories, professional performances and even authentic Shakespearean-era swordplay with Renaissance costumes.

“Our General Manager Gary Thorpe grew up near Sandgate so he wanted to give back to the community,” she says.

“ We always receive lovely comments from locals, but we can tell they have a good time because hundreds of people continue to show up each year to Einbunpin Lagoon Park, for our annual production of a Shakespeare play.

“They’ll come along an hour or two in advance to grab their favourite spot in front of the stage and stay until the very end, when the sun is just starting to set.”

Wendy says the event was started 10 years ago with the idea to hold the festival along Bulimba’s Oxford Street, calling it Shakespeare on Oxford.

“The festival became so popular that in 2009 we expanded it to include a Shakespeare by the Bay weekend in Sandgate,” she says.

“We still use the original format Shakespearean-themed events in local venues on the Saturday, followed by a professional production of a Shakespeare play in Einbunpin Lagoon Park on the Sunday.”

The main festivities will kick off on Sunday afternoon where Einbunpin Lagoon Park will travel back in time to the European Renaissance era.

Events will include swordplay by Brisbane troupe Prima Spada, a performance of Shakespeare’s comedy As You Like It and 60-Minute Shakespeare taster readings including A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth.

Wendy says children also have the opportunity to be involved in the festivities.

“Bring the kids along to Kids Classic Shakespeare in Sandgate library, where actors put on a fun little display, telling some of Shakespeare’s stories adapted for the littlies,” she says.